


Sunspar Burning

by Dragonsigma



Category: Original Work
Genre: Background Relationships, Gen, Space Opera, Space Stations, Trans Characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-14
Updated: 2017-06-19
Packaged: 2018-10-31 20:54:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 18,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10907271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonsigma/pseuds/Dragonsigma
Summary: A timid geologist is chosen to help argue one of the most important debates in space-faring history: a fight to decide the future of the newly-discovered inhabitable planet Sunspar. Ariana Conteh of Beaconstar Habitations seeks to fulfill her sister's dream of founding a civilian colony on another world. But after a terrible accident, Jules Westerfield's mining company steps in, claiming it would be safer and more productive to use the planet for resources instead. Rushan, drawn into the middle of this, soon finds other motivations at play, and learns a secret about the planet that will change space travel forever.





	1. Arrivals

The rumbling of shuttles launching from the docks at Hyperion Spaceport, so different from the steady drone of mining drills that had been a constant in Rushan Harron’s life for the past year and a half, rang in his ears as he pulled his suitcase through the terminal. Even more unfamiliar was the press of travelers, all bound for some station or other, and no less intense for the early hour, making it exactly as loud and intimidating as he’d feared. He’d been through Hyperion once before, when he’d taken the assignment out on the asteroid base. Even with the beautiful expanse of stars out every window, it was not somewhere he would choose to spend his morning.

If he had been given a choice, he’d still be on the Lehmann geology station studying the asteroid with people he knew, and not about to throw himself into the middle of the biggest legal battle in recent history. But the orders had come from the top, and there was no refusing Ariana Conteh.

Rushan covered a yawn and dragged his bag up to the nearest coffee stall, away from the worst of the crowd. From the looks of it, it had just opened for the morning. The young man setting up the machines behind the counter gave him a sympathetic, if somewhat amused, look.

“Catching an early flight, eh?"

“It’s even earlier for me,” Rushan said, stifling another yawn. “I’m from the research outpost." The barista made a sympathetic noise. “That’s three hours out. Don’t know why you fellows don’t just use Union Standard Time. Try to catch some sleep on the flight?” He held out a steaming cup.

“Can’t. I’ll be working.” Rushan took the cup gratefully. It seemed the simplest answer. In reality, he had no idea what to expect, but it would probably be some sort of preparation for the case.

“That’s rough."

A few moments later, the station loudspeakers crackled to life.

“ _Russian Heron? I’m looking for a Mr. Russian Heron on the 5:30 launch bound for Sunspar Station."_

Rushan grumbled. Well, at least this was a _new_ variation on mispronouncing his name. At least nobody assumed he was a girl anymore.

“That you?"

“That’s not my name, but yes, it’s me."

“Sunspar?” the barista said, in tones of disbelief. "You’re working with the Sunspar fiasco? That’s a big deal."

“Tell me about it,” Rushan sighed. He paid for the coffee he hadn’t even gotten to taste yet, and headed through the crowd to the desk, trying not to get in anyone’s way and narrowly avoiding walking into a small child in the process.

“Mr. Russian Heron?” the desk attendant repeated, glancing around the terminal.

“That’s me. And it’s Rushan Harron."

“Apologies, Mr. Heron,” the attendant said in the same bored tone, and handed him a data tablet. “If you’d just sign this— thank you. Your shuttle is at Port Five. A Mx. Greybriar should be waiting for you at the gate on behalf of Ariana Conteh and Beaconstar Habitations."

The name was familiar, but Rushan still didn’t have any idea who he was looking for. Fortunately, Greybriar recognized him first.  

“Rushan!” a tall person exclaimed, hurrying over to him. “It’s good to see you again. I don’t know if we’ve properly met— Tal Greybriar, I’m Ari’s vice president."

Rushan shook hands, feeling like a mess next to Tal’s elegant pale blue suit and neatly-combed light hair. Ney was perfectly businesslike while Rushan probably looked like an overworked student. Tal seemed to take no notice as ney set off towards the shuttle bay, Rushan following behind, frantically trying to remember when he’d seen nem before.

Once again, Tal didn’t give him a chance to feel lost. “You were at the conference last year, right?” ney said. “You gave the presentation on elastic fault erosion?"

That conference— a week of early mornings, crowded rooms, and far too much light and noise. Giving that talk had been one of the most difficult things he’d ever done. He never would have done it if it hadn’t been a requirement for the Lehmann job. Rushan remembered it well. He was more surprised that Tal did.

“Of course. It was fascinating,” Tal replied when he said so. “I’m not a scientist, but I always go to the research conferences when I can. I like seeing the new discoveries and ideas."

“I don’t like them much,” Rushan admitted. “It’s always too loud and too busy."

“I can understand that. They do get a little tiring.” They passed a repair bay, the mechanics hard at work on a half-dismantled vessel. Rushan tried not to cringe at the noise of their tools, which were powerful enough that the deck vibrated as they worked.

"Did you get the files I sent you? Savannah’s notes?” Tal asked when they could hear each other again.

“I was studying them all night. There’s so much to catch up on. I’d read reports before, but not the raw data.” He’d had no reason to look at the closely-guarded Sunspar files, not until Savannah Bailey dropped out of the Beaconstar delegation only days before the launch and he’d been called on to replace her.

“I’m sure you’ll do fine. She chose you personally, you know.”  Ney gave a gentle smile. "I know this is all so sudden, but we can’t do it without you."

Rushan shook his head. “There’re better people for the job."

“I trust Savannah’s choice,” Tal said, and Rushan saw no reason to argue further. He would do what he could. He just hoped it would be enough.

Tal led him past two more docks before turning into a launch bay. This one was, thankfully, quieter. There were still the clangs of someone working on the ship’s engines from the other side of the ship, but it wasn’t so much that he couldn’t hear Tal.

“And here’s our shuttle. _Moonlark._ Lissa named her…” Tal trailed off, neir hand resting almost reverently on the ship’s hull.  

Lissa Conteh, who had founded Beaconstar Habitations, and then died right before the Sunspar chaos began, leaving her sister to pick up the leadership.

“She would have liked you, I think,” Tal said. Ney shook neir head as if to clear it and continued, all traces of that sadness gone or covered, “Come in, I’ll introduce you to the team."

Rushan followed Tal up the ramp, their footsteps clanging on the metal. Voices floated into range.

“That still sounds impossible,” someone was saying. “What’s the point of a donut universe?"

The ship’s main cabin had two small couches in fading upholstery, a set of shelves on the wall covered sparsely with various bags and boxes, and two tables, one large and one small.

Two people were seated at the smaller table with a chessboard laid out between them, in the middle of a game. One was a man maybe ten years older than Rushan, wearing a patterned sweater and old-fashioned glasses. The other person was around the same age, had light hair curling in every direction, and sharp blue eyes that swung up to meet Rushan and Tal as they entered.

“Ah, Tal! You’re back! Help me out here, I’m trying to convince Mike that it _is_ possible that in a toroid universe, a black hole would—"

From the looks of it, this was probably a common occurrence. Tal interrupted. “As I’ve said multiple times, Ilian, I’m not getting between you and your boyfriend.” Ney looked to the other player. “But if it’s a matter of science, then I’m afraid I’m on neir side, Mike."

He sighed, but he was smiling. “Aw. We were having a good debate. I was about to convince nem to kiss me."

The arch reply was immediate. “ _Convince_ me?” Ilian teased, and  leaned forward to kiss Michael.

Tal rolled neir eyes good-naturedly. “If you haven’t already guessed,” ney said drily, “these two lovebirds are our astrophysicist—"

The person with the wild hair stood up from the chessboard. “Ilian Alcubierre, how do you do?” Ney bowed with a flourish and offered Rushan neir hand.

“—and our lawyer."

“I’m Michael Norton, hello,” Michael said with a friendly wave.

“Rushan Harron. I suppose I’m your geologist now…"

“Ah, Savannah’s replacement?” Ilian smiled. “She’s told me about you. It’s nice to meet you at last.” What had she said? They all seemed to expect so much from him.

“Take a seat, Rushan,” Tal told him. “You can move your things to your room once we’ve launched. And I’ll find you some better coffee,” ney added, nodding at the cup Rushan set on the table.

“Finish our game, Ilian?” Michael prompted, turning back to the chessboard.

“Gladly."

“Who’s winning, by the way?” Tal asked, examining the board.

“I am!” said both at once.

“Nothing new there.” Tal laughed, and then turned serious again. “I’m sorry to talk about work already, but how are the statements coming, Michael?"

“I’m just about done. Westerfield can’t legally hold the claim on Sunspar. All the evidence says it should have reverted to us."

Ilian moved a knight. “You just have to convince the Planetary Agency of that. Now, as I was saying, Mike, in a toroid universe, space is shaped such that light can loop around…"

Rushan tuned out the conversation and took a sip from the mug Tal handed him. A few moments later, he heard the echoing footsteps of someone else coming aboard.

A woman came into the room, her hands full of tools. She was stocky and muscled and her oil-streaked blond hair was tied back. Rushan saw right away what had been making the noise. Her right leg was almost entirely gone, replaced with an elaborate metal construction.

“Everything checks out,” she announced. “Our bird’s shipshape.” Then she noticed Rushan. “You the new kid?"

“That’s me."

The woman dumped the tools on the table and held out a smudged hand for Rushan to shake. “Angela Marlowe, ship’s pilot and engineer. Tal! Tell Bosslady we’re ready to fly."

“I’ll go fetch her.” Tal disappeared through the door at the front of the room.

Rushan stared at the pile of tools. Surely this wasn’t a standard thing? “Isn’t launch prep the station workers’ job?” he asked.

“Don’t trust ‘em, not with my ship.” Angela flopped down into a chair and put her feet up on the table. Something must have displeased her, because she took one look at her metal leg and groaned. “Aw, dammit, I must have messed up my leg again. Hand me that screwdriver?” Rushan reached over and passed it to her.

“Downside of designing your own prosthetics,” she said as she worked, “nobody else knows the first thing about fixing them."

Michael snorted. “As if you’d let anyone else close enough to try. Checkmate, Ilian."

Ilian conceded the game.“Well played."

“Hey, kid.” Angela nodded at Rushan. “You met the Boss yet?"

“I haven’t. I met her sister once. Only briefly, back when I joined.” He’d been fresh out of graduate school and looking for a sponsor so he could continue his research. He’d never expected to get the job with Beaconstar, and had been even more surprised that Lissa Conteh had spoken to him directly, if only for a few minutes. He remembered an enthusiastic, dedicated woman who’d wasted no time in making him feel like a part of something important, the pink tips of her braids bouncing as she talked.

Angela smiled, a look Rushan recognized from years of hearing upperclassmen try to scare the new students. “Ari’s tough. Lissa, Lissa was sweet. But the Bosslady… You’re gonna be working hard, and you better not slack off, or…” She let the threat hang in the air.

“At least let him meet me first,” a new voice said. Ariana Conteh strode into the room, Tal following behind. The head of Beaconstar was an exceptionally tall woman, dark-skinned and strikingly bald. A long leather coat flapped at her heels.

“Ari, this is Rushan Harron.” Tal motioned for Rushan to stand.

Ari gave a sharp nod and held out a hand for Rushan to shake. “Welcome aboard. Good to see you’re here."

As if on cue, Angela groaned dramatically and unfolded herself from her chair. “Right. I’ll go get this bird outta dock.” She turned back a few steps from the door. “Gonna get the new kid up to speed, Bosslady? If he’s been holed up in his lab all the time he’s probably missed the news."Rushan decided not to protest that he had heard the story already. It wouldn’t do to argue with the team on the first day.

Ari took a seat at the table, and the others followed suit. “Six years ago,” she began, “our scouting ships found a viable planet. Sunspar. It fit the parameters for a colony world— not just a sealed research outpost, or a mining base, but the first proper civilian colony in history."

That hadn’t been a small find. Most of Beaconstar’s work was in maintaining mining and research stations, but their ultimate goal had always been planetside civilian colonies. The only existing civilian habitations were on space stations. Impressive, true, but a far cry from the dream of living under an alien sky.

Ari continued. “We submitted a claim to the Planetary Agency, and after we’d done our research, hired Lightmark for the mining we couldn’t afford to do ourselves. Metals for construction and the like. They set up their drilling bases…"

“And then there was the explosion,” Ilian supplied.

“I heard about that,” Rushan said, suppressing a shudder. “It sounded horrible."

The deck began to rumble as Moonlark’s engines started up.

Michael picked up the story. “Seven people on the base died. They evacuated the rest, and the the Agency immediately deemed the entire planet unsafe. Meaning ownership of the claim went to them, and all activities on Sunspar were banned. It took nearly a year, but we finally proved that the researchers had been using dangerous techniques.  They rescinded the ban. Thing is, there’s no precedent for de-listing an unsafe planet. We thought the rights would revert to us, but then the Westerfield Mining Company showed up and said they’d bought the claim."

“We protested,” Ari said. “Westerfield lodged a counter-protest, and the Planetary Agency decided the entire issue should go to a trial on neutral ground with Agency arbiters, and moved a station into orbit. Jules Westerfield’s team will try to convince the Agency representatives that while their technology is safe enough for mining Sunspar, civilian habitations are out of the question. We have to prove them wrong."

Angela’s voice crackled over the speakers. “We’re in flight. Two days to Sunspar Station."

Tal stood up. “I’ll show you your room, Rushan. You can put away your things and take a nap before we get back to work. You look like you need it,” ney added, not unkindly.

The shuttle’s back section, behind the navigation and main cabin, was sectioned into living quarters. Tal waved Rushan into one of the cramped rooms.

“We’ll gather again for lunch. Tell me if you need anything,” ney said, and left him to unpack. Rushan looked around the tiny room. It was standard spacer quarters: the small bed with drawers underneath, the tiny fold-out desk built into the wall. Far better than the bunks on some transport vessels he’d been on. But it still made him homesick for his housing on the Lehmann base, where everything was familiar.

Rushan sat on the bed and wondered what he’d gotten himself into.

**~//~**

Sunspar Station was a standard modular construction, made up of several spherical habitations linked together into a hexagon by cylindrical passageways, solar sheets stretched between the vertices to catch the light from the system’s orange star. The control station was at the center, the six surrounding modules fulfilling various other purposes.

The planet it orbited was lush with clouds, and beneath these lay swaths of gold and red vegetation visible between deep blue seas and rich black volcanic belts. Rushan knew better than to be put off by that last— it was the abundance of volcanic soil that encouraged the extensive plant growth.

Angela set _Moonlark_ down into one of the station’s docks. Crewmembers were waiting for them as soon as they stepped onto the station.

“Welcome to Sunspar Station,” one said. “Your rooms are all prepared— my colleagues will take you there when you’re ready."

They weren’t the only ship docked. Ari shot a piercing glare across the hanger to where station staff were helping unload another shuttle.

“That’s them.” There was no doubt as to who she meant.

“Suspiciously perfect timing, if you ask me,” Ilian muttered.

A woman in an elegant purple suit emerged from the Westerfield shuttle, a much smaller man, dark-skinned and wearing a simple company uniform, following behind, burdened with at least two large suitcases. He looked even younger than Rushan. The woman carried only a slim briefcase.

“Crispin!” she ordered, handing it to the young man. “Make sure everything’s unpacked."

“Yes, ma’am,” the boy said.

“That’s Westerfield’s VP, Marissa Akiyama,” Tal explained. “A dangerous woman. Word is she’s the power behind the throne, manages all the company’s movements."

“And her secretary, it looks like.” Michael winced. “Poor boy."

Ari narrowed her eyes. “I wonder who else they brought."

“Westerfield should be around here somewhere…” Ilian began, then found what ney was looking for. “There."

A middle-aged man, white, mustached, and not especially tall, strode out of the shuttle and rapped his cane against the floor. “Get moving, you people!” he yelled. “We can’t hang around here all day. There’s work to be done."

“I’m working on it.” Akiyama grumbled, and ordered Crispin to grab yet another bag.

The man turned and approached Ari. Tension grew like static in the air. For a few moments it seemed as if there was no noise but his cane striking the metal floor with each step.

“Jules Westerfield.” Ari’s voice was cold.

“Miss Conteh,” he returned, equally cool.

Before anything more could be said, one of the station crew cleared his throat for attention, either oblivious to the tension or intentionally trying to break it.

“The Captain would like to invite you all to dinner tonight after you’ve settled in."

Ari glared at Westerfield. Westerfield glared back. “Thank you, that’s very kind,” she said, without looking away.

“We’ll be there,” Westerfield said.

“Ari, we should all get unpacked. Angela will be along after she finishes checking _Moonlark_ ,” Tal called, breaking the confrontation at last. Ari headed back over to her team, and Westerfield turned to his own. Two women had emerged from the shuttle carrying their bags.

“Langley! Salazar! Is that everything?” he yelled.

Ari glanced at her team; they were standing ready with their luggage. “…Yes, we should go,” she agreed. Another crewmember appeared.

“Follow me, please,” ney said, and led them out of the hanger.

~//~

“The sooner we’re done here, the better,” Jules Westerfield grumbled.

“This better be worth it,” Akiyama muttered. She was standing next to him, wearing much the same expression. “We’ve never had such an interruption in business before."

“If the Agency has a drop of sense, we have the planet.” Westerfield laughed, once, and added quietly, “Conteh won’t know what she lost."

“Are you certain about that?” Akiyama narrowed her eyes and lowered her voice. “Her people ran the first scans. If anybody knows about the Spark…"

“She might know it’s there, but she doesn’t know what it can do. Either way, we have enough up our sleeve to ensure that Beaconstar never sets foot on this planet again."

The last member of their party, Jamie Kennedia, finally joined them on the platform, neir faded backpack looking like ney had packed it last minute, and not very neatly at that.

“Jamie! There you are!” Jeanne Langley called.

“Hey, Jeanne. Did I miss anything?"

“The Beaconstar team was here,” Akiyama put in. “And we’ll be seeing them again; the Captain’s invited us to dinner."

Carrie Salazar rolled her eyes. “ _That’s_ going to be fun."

Akiyama ignored the sarcasm. “The Planetary Agency lawyers are going to be there. We can get on their good side."

“If they have a good side…” Jamie muttered.

“Y’all done chatting yet?” Westerfield demanded.

A crewmember appeared at his elbow. “I can take you to your rooms, if you’re ready."

Akiyama looked over the group. “Let’s get moving, people!"

~//~

“This is Interstellar News Broadcasting. I’m reporting from Sunspar Station, where the representatives have just arrived."

Tal just barely restrained nemself from glaring at the reporter following alongside them, camera floating above his shoulder, his nervous-looking lackey following behind with several tablets and the camera case piled in his arms. He had joined them as they entered the passage leading from the docking bay to guest quarters, and didn’t show any signs of leaving them alone anytime soon.

“Not only is Westerfield here already,” ney muttered to Ari, “so are the media."

“It’s not unexpected, though,” Michael commented, shaking his head.  

“And here we have Beaconstar Habitations,” the reporter said, before shoving a microphone unceremoniously into Ari’s face. “Ariana Conteh, don’t you think it reflects badly on you to be trying to build a civilian colony on a dangerous planet?"

“ _No comment,”_ Ari bit out, pushing past him. He skipped to catch up.

“Do you think it’s a good idea to be risking your company’s reputation so soon after the death of your sister?"

“Get out of my face,” Ari growled, shoving aside the camera.

The boy hesitated. “Sir… maybe we shouldn’t…” But the reporter ignored him and turned to Tal.“Mx. Greybriar, do you believe the quality of leadership at Beaconstar Habitations has faltered since the loss of former company president Lissa Conteh?"

“I do not.” Tal’s response, cold as ice, also had no effect.

The assistant tried again to get his boss’s attention. “Sir…” Again, the reporter took only enough notice of him to put a big hand on his arm and swing him bodily around to face back down the hallway.

“And here we have the Westerfield Mining delegation. Mr. Westerfield—"

Westerfield brandished his cane. “Fuck off, before I smash your camera."

“As we can see,” the reporter went on, unfazed, “the representatives are under a great deal of stress. Perhaps there is more to this quarrel than the public has been allowed to know?"

Tal grumbled. “Sensationalism. You can never get away."

“That’s a wrap!” the reporter declared, dumping the camera into his assistant’s already-full hands. “Go upload the videos."

“Yes, sir. And now everybody hates us,” the boy added in an undertone. Rushan felt a little bad for him, but he was still glad when the two men left.

“I do apologize for that,” one of the crewmembers said, not sounding very sorry, “but we don’t have any control over the media.” Ney waved the team into the guest quarters module.

The common room wasn’t much larger than _Moonlark’s_ main cabin. There was a couch and a round table, all standard design. The doors at the back of the room presumably led to bedrooms. Their guide pointed out the small kitchen down the hall. Angela, who had rejoined them by then, looked a little dubious when they were told they shared it with the Westerfield team.

And with that, they were left to prepare for dinner, and the upcoming debates.

“Go and get settled in,” Ari told her team. “I expect you all back here in half an hour. Tal, we should prepare."

~//~

When the common room was empty but for the two of them, Ari dropped onto the couch and let out a heavy sigh.

“That reporter’s a piece of work."

“I know.” Tal settled nemself next to her. “His poor assistant. The lad looked so embarrassed."

“Lissa would have charmed him sweet,” Ari said, a rare smile on her lips.

“Lissa could charm anyone."

“Especially you."

Tal looked away a moment at that, lost in memory.

“We’re so close…” Ney raised neir hands and dropped them into neir lap in a helpless gesture. “But I still feel so far away from her dream."

“If we win Sunspar, it’ll change the world. The Spark will change spacetravel forever. Civilian settlements… it’s what Lissa always wanted."

“If Westerfield knows what’s here, if he knows what’s at stake…"

“It would explain the fight he’s putting up. But he’s not going to win."

Tal was about to reply when Angela came into the room, her tablet in her hands. “Angela, you’re done already?"

“You bet.” Angela sketched a salute with her stylus. “Don’t got much to unpack. As long as I’ve got my leg and my tools, I’m all set."

“We’re ready too.” That was Michael, Ilian close at his side.

“We’re going to finish unpacking later,” Ilian explained. “I want to review some experiments first.” Ney had a computer like Angela’s and a stylus tucked behind neir ear. Ney and Michael found seats around the table, Angela joining them with an amused huff.

“You two?” she laughed. “I thought you’d want to at least get in some making out first."

“Angela!” Michael exclaimed. His ears were turning red.

“Whatever. You looked around yet? Not that there’s much to see. This place is tiny."

Ilian gave neir partner a quick kiss. “As long as we’re together, it doesn’t matter."

“Bleh. You two are sickening.” Angela sketched a few lines on her tablet, frowned, and erased them. “Anyone seen the kid?"

“I’m here. Am I late?” Rushan came out of his room and looked around nervously; had they been waiting for him?

Tal smiled reassuringly. “You’re not, don’t worry."

Ari stood up. “We’re all here?” She took her own seat at the table, followed by Tal. “Then we’ll start early. Michael?"

Michael cleared his throat and began. “We’re going up against Westerfield’s top lawyer, Jeanne Langley. She’s going to try and discredit us…"

Rushan didn’t miss the way Angela tensed at that name. What was that about? But that wasn’t his business. If it was important, he’d learn eventually. He turned his attention back to Michael.

**~//~**

“How do I look?” Michael adjusted his tie yet again.

“You look absolutely dashing,” Ilian said, reaching out and taking his hand. Behind them, Angela snorted. She’d changed from her typical work clothes into a formal jacket and pants that showed her mechanical leg. Ilian had combed neir hair into some semblance of order, but pieces were already fluffing up and drifting.

“I hope this all goes well,” Rushan said as they headed down the corridor to the connecting module. Tomorrow, the space would be rearranged to host the first debate session. But for now, it was a dining room, laid out with three large tables. One for each team, and then one for the captain and his crew, and probably the Agency representatives too. They had arrived before the Westerfield team this time. Various crewmembers were milling about preparing last minute touches.

Ilian gave Rushan a sympathetic smile. “You would rather be in a lab, yes? Michael is the same way. People can be strange to him, but give him an indecipherable law book and he’s right at home."

“Says the one who spends neir days surrounded by math,” Michael shot back.

Rushan sighed. “It’s just… so complicated. You have to talk to people, and then someone always gets into a fight…"

Angela interrupted with: “I always consider it a plus if I get to punch somebody.” That got Tal’s attention.

“Please don’t punch anybody,” ney warned. “We’re here to make a good impression on the representatives."

A woman in Planetary Agency uniform approached them.

“Greetings, Miss Conteh, Mx. Greybriar. I’m Captain Danielle Hoffman, currently in charge of Sunspar Station. May I introduce the Planetary Agency arbiters?” She waved forward two more people in similar uniforms. “This is Ramin Kazemi and Rebecca Stratford."

“Pleased to meet you,” Arbiter Stratford shook Ari’s hand. “Here’s to a fair deal."

“Welcome to Sunspar. I look forward to the negotiations,” Arbiter Kazemi said.

Captain Hoffman herded the judges away to meet the arriving Westerfield team, and Ari and Tal rejoined the group.

Ilian narrowed neir eyes and sniffed. “Hm. They’ve brought Jamie Kennedia."

“What is it you have against nem, anyway?” Tal asked.

“Only that ney’s labeled my entire field worthless. Practicality, ney calls it. Just because I don’t develop medicine doesn’t mean there’s no point to high-level physics…"

Rushan hoped this wouldn’t turn into the conflict he feared. “There’s good in all sorts of sciences,” he said, and then, recognizing a face in the Westerfield group, “Wait, is that Carrie Salazar?"

“Her?” Tal glanced at the woman. “She’s Westerfield’s geologist and resident tech expert."

“I know her. She headed my final year university project.” It felt a little odd to be seeing Carrie working under anyone else. She had been a powerful leader, if a little self-centered, and her group had achieved far beyond anything their professors had expected. But she had never been happy taking orders, or even too many suggestions, from teammates. Maybe she’d changed, or maybe working with Westerfield was such a desirable position that she was willing to bear it.

“Tal, can you handle the rest? Michael and I are going to sit down,” Ilian said, breaking into Rushan’s thoughts. At Tal’s nod, the two headed towards the table, arguing good-naturedly about, apparently, wineglasses. Rushan followed Tal and Angela to a table at the side of the room piled with appetizers, and took a vegetable dumpling.

When he turned back, a tall angular woman had approached from the Westerfield team and was staring at Angela, who was glaring back with the same undisguised fury. Rushan took a few steps back.

“Jeanne,” Angela growled. So this was Westerfield’s lawyer? Angela had reacted to her name during the meeting. Maybe he was about to find out why. And maybe this was about to be a disaster.

“What are you doing here?” Jeanne’s voice was cool, but there was something darker behind it.

“Taking Beaconstar’s claim back from you thieves."

“How can you be working with them? It’s way too dangerous!"

“You have no idea about danger!” Angela slammed her fist down on the table, making Rushan jump. “You’ve always been so scared of anything,” she accused.

“I thought you’d understand.” Jeanne sounded sad, somehow. “You were there."

Rushan didn’t need to hear any more of this. He backed away and found Tal, Michael, and Ilian at the Beaconstar table.

“What’s…what’s going on with them?” he asked, tentatively.

Tal sighed. “Jeanne Langley is Angela’s sister. And as far as I know, they’ve never agreed on anything."

“I can’t imagine. I always got along with my sisters."

Back at the serving table, Angela and Jeanne were still arguing.

~//~

“Hmph. It’s Ilian. That pompous arrogant _mathematician_."

Across the Westerfield table, Carrie laughed. “Looks like you’ve got a rival, Jamie."

“You joke, but you didn’t go to school with nem.” Jamie took another drink from neir wineglass. “Always trying to do one better. Entering every damn competition…"

“Keep it to yourself, Kennedia,” Akiyama told nem. She looked to the woman sitting next to her. “Thoughts, Carrie?"

Carrie snickered. “Look at that ragtag team. Is this the best Conteh’s got? This should be easy."

“I wouldn’t be so confident yet,” Akiyama warned. “They’re going to put up a fight."

Carrie leaned in conspiratorially. “Yeah, but we’ll beat ‘em, Marissa. We always do."

“With whatever it takes,” Akiyama agreed. “Crispin!"

The boy was at her side in a moment. “What is it, ma’am?"

“Get me another glass of wine."

“Yes, ma’am.” He nodded and headed to the side table. Carrie watched approvingly.

“You’ve got that boy under your thumb."

Akiyama smiled, a hint of viciousness there. “He’s been useful."

Jamie watched him go. “You should cut him a break sometimes."

She shook her head. “Not on my watch."

~//~

Angela and Jeanne had returned to their respective groups, and Michael and Tal were happily listening to Ilian explain something to do with subatomic particles, but there was still an undeniable tension in the air. At least, Rushan thought the others could feel it. It wasn’t that the party was crowded, because it wasn’t, not with only the six members of each team and the station staff in attendance. But the two sides hated each other, and that made it worse than a space crowded by friends. Maybe he just needed to get up for a moment.

He headed towards the side table, thinking he’d get a cup of coffee or another dumpling. And walked right into the young man hurrying across the room with a glass of wine in his hands.They both jumped; the glass fell and crashed on the floor, spilling wine everywhere.

“Shit, I’m sorry, I—” Rushan began, when a crewmember appeared at his side.

“I can handle this,” ney said, waving the two aside.

The boy immediately went to get another glass, glancing anxiously back towards the Westerfield table, where the rest of the group were chatting over the salad plates the staff had just passed out.“I don’t think I’ve met you…"

The boy turned to face him. “Crispin Delany, personal secretary to—“ He didn’t get any further before he was silenced by another voice.

“What’s going on here?” Rushan turned to find Jules Westerfield studying the two of them. There was a beat of silence, then Crispin nodded towards the Westerfield table.

“If you’ll excuse me…” He walked away before Rushan could reply, leaving him alone with Westerfield.

“So, young man. You’re with Beaconstar."

Rushan scrambled for words, He wished he hadn’t gotten up in the first place. “Uh, yes, sir. Geology department."

Westerfield made a _hmph_ sound. “It’s a pity. We could use minds like yours."

Rushan didn’t know what to say to that, but luckily he didn’t need to. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted the captain stepping up to a microphone.

“If everybody would please sit down…” a crewmember announced.

Westerfield gave Rushan another searching look. “I hope to see you at the hearing tomorrow,” he said, before they both moved to obey the announcement.

Back at the Beaconstar table, Rushan slid into his seat. He got a questioning look from Tal, but ney didn’t say anything, because the captain had begun to speak.

“I would like to warmly welcome the representatives from the Westerfield Mining Company and Beaconstar Habitations to Sunspar Station. The first of the three allotted debate sessions will be held at ten tomorrow morning. But for now, I wish for you to enjoy yourselves. Thank you."

At that, more crewmembers came out with dishes and began to serve.

“Three debates,” Ari said. “One week, and then it’ll be decided."

“We’ll win.” Angela’s tone held no doubts. “Whatever it takes."

Tal lifted neir glass. “For Lissa. And the future."


	2. Tensions

Rushan woke early. He always did, in new surroundings. At least he could use the time productively, study the Sunspar reports some more. Savannah’s findings ranged from the typical: rich nitrogen deposits in the volcanic soil, heavy tectonic activity at the seafloor, to the more interesting: ranges of glass mountains formed from dying volcanos, odd honeycombing of undersea rocks likely due to microorganisms.

There were also pages of reports detailing the Lightmark mining disaster. From what he read, it seemed that they had drilled into a pocket of volatile gas using a bore meant for metal mining, and it had ignited. A terrible set of circumstances.

Rushan looked up—someone was talking in the common room. He went out to see who it was. Angela was stretched out on the couch, her feet up, working intently on her tablet.

“If we shrink  _ you _ a little…” she muttered, “…factor in the Spark fuel… there’s room for  _ this _ , and then a few more connections and another capacitor…"

“Angela?"

“Hey. I’m modeling some changes to the Lark’s engines. Didn’t expect to see you up yet."

Rushan yawned. “I couldn’t sleep anymore. Travel does things to my head."

Angela shrugged, and went back to her work, but continued talking. “Makes sense. The Westerfield team is up already too.” She rolled her eyes. “Surprised anyone could sleep through the racket they’re making in the kitchen. Ari and the others should be here soon."

There was a pot of coffee on the table; Angela must have prepared it. Rushan went to get a mug from the kitchen and poured himself a cup.

“Hey, kid,” Angela said when he came back into the room. “I think you grabbed the wrong med bag when we were unpacking. You must have the stuff for my leg, and I’m pretty sure you want your stuff back."

“Oh.” He hoped he wasn’t blushing; he knew his skin wasn’t quite dark enough to hide it. That would be the testosterone patches. It wasn’t that anyone would complain about gender things, not these days, but talking about medical stuff always embarrassed him. “Then I’ve probably got yours. I’ll go get it.” He should have checked, that was a stupid mistake.

“You know they’ve got things for that now?” Angela said, after they’d swapped bags. “Nanobots and molecular reformulation. You don’t have to take pills. My sister’s got one. Different hormones, of course, but same idea."

Rushan shook his head. “I don’t have the time. And the medics on the base I’ve been working on didn’t have it."

“Figures,” Angela snorted. “They never have what you need. That’s why I brought extra of my stuff. Can’t risk my leg going unhappy.” She patted her knee. This close, Rushan could tell that the leg was a simple design made to look complicated, showing off Angela’s engineering skill. And sense of style.

He sipped his coffee and paged through the data; Angela continued sketching and calculating engine modifications. A little while later, they began to hear the sounds of people preparing in the other rooms.

“Only a few hours before the first hearing. You got your notes?"

“Right here.” Rushan waved his tablet. He spotted Ilian and Michael as they came into the room.

“You’ll need them,” Angela interjected. “Prove to those cowards that this planet isn’t as bad as they think. Just need to treat it right, like a ship."

“Angela, you would go to war over a ship,” Ilian said by way of greeting as ney headed towards the kitchen.

“I protect what’s mine,” she answered plainly. “And I fight for what I deserve. Morning, Ilian, Michael."

“Good morning,” Michael returned, accepting a steaming mug from his partner.

“Ready for today, dear?” Ilian put neir own mug on the table.

“Today is only the start."

“Which means,”—everybody looked up as Ari strode into the room, Tal following behind—“it’s the most important moment."

With everybody ready, it was time to begin. They all took seats around the table and looked to Ari.

“If we’re going to win back Sunspar and everything we’ve worked for for the past five years, we have to make a good impression.” Something in her voice drew Rushan to listen. He could certainly tell why she was in charge. “There are three sessions. Which means we need to convince those judges now, and keep them convinced through all of Westerfield’s tricks.” She paused, letting the words sink in. “We have two hours before we need to be in the courtroom. I have a meeting in a few minutes to present a preliminary argument to the representatives. Have everything ready by the time I get back.” With that, she gathered up her tablet and left the room.

Angela grinned at Rushan. “Told ya the Bosslady was impressive."

“I know. I wish I’d met her sooner. She’s an amazing leader.” As he said it, something changed in the atmosphere. Tal abruptly rose from neir seat and stalked out to the hall. The room was left in silence, the remaining people wearing various expressions of worry and sadness.

Had Rushan offended nem? “Did… did I say something wrong? I didn’t mean…"

“No, it’s not you,” Michael told him. From his tone it seemed that they all knew what Rushan didn’t, knew why Tal had reacted like that.

Ilian stood up. “I’ll go talk to nem."

~//~

Ilian found Tal a few steps outside the doorway, eyes closed tight and head bowed, neir arms wrapped around nemself. Ilian couldn’t even tell if ney had noticed Ilian come out; ney hadn’t moved at all.

“Tal."

Ney spun around to face Ilian, suddenly angry. “ _ She _ led us here,  _ she _ named this planet… and… and you don’t even  _ talk _ about her!” ney accused, near to tears, whether from grief or frustration Ilian couldn’t rightly tell.

“We all miss Lissa,” ney said softly. “You know Ari is still hurting. Lissa was her sister. And for the rest of us, she was our inspiration."

Tal’s response was harsh, still accusing. “You weren’t close like I was. She’d spend whole nights describing the way the light reflected off the mountains. How people were going to  _ live _ on this planet, not just work here but live their lives on another world…"

“And they will, someday,” Ilian said, with all the certainty ney could manage. “Ari’s not giving up on that. Once we have the Spark, we can go anywhere."

In a sense. It would be years before they could refine the Spark into what they needed to power transport, but it would happen.

Tal stayed silent, just breathing. Ney seemed a little calmer; Ilian hoped ney would be back to normal soon. As much as ney could— losing Lissa had nearly destroyed nem. Ilian thought of losing Michael and shivered.

“It’s not that I don’t like Ari,” Tal began after a pause. “She’s always been a good friend. But she’s not Lis. Lis… we were going to get  _ married _ . She’d asked me… she wanted it to be on Sunspar. If she hadn’t been on that shuttle… or… or if I had been with her…"

Ilian’s eyes widened. Tal had said such things before, in the weeks after the crash, but Ilian hadn’t expected neir thoughts to be so dark now. Ney stepped forward and put a hand on Tal’s shoulder.

“Tal. There’s nothing you can do to change the past. Losing Lissa… that hurt all of us. You most of all. But we’re doing what she would have wanted."

Tal seemed to come to some mental conclusion. “I know. I’ll be all right,” ney said, sighing deeply before turning around and affecting a more businesslike air. Ilian dropped neir hand back to neir side. “How are the others? I probably caused a scene. I’ll have to apologize to everyone. And Rushan."

Ilian shook neir head. There was no reason for Tal to feel guilty over this. “We understand. As for Rushan… I think the boy deserves an explanation, but I don’t think he’s the type to be hurt. He’s probably more worried that he upset you."

Tal smiled weakly. “From what I’ve seen of him, he hates conflict. And we’ve brought him to the biggest fight Beaconstar’s ever had. Savannah would be a lot more comfortable here."

“We can’t change that. He’s doing fine so far."

“It’s going to get a lot worse."

“I know.” A moment passed. “Are you ready to come back?"

Tal nodded. “I suppose I should. We have to be ready for this debate."

“We’ll win, Tal. Michael hasn’t lost a case yet."

“He’s never argued a case this size before."

“None of us have. We’ll make it through. You’ll get to Sunspar, Tal. I promise."

“I hope you’re right."

**~//~**

“Crispin! Where’s my coffee?” Marissa Akiyama’s voice echoed down the hallway along with the sound of her boots. Crispin grumbled to himself but made sure that none of it showed on his face when he presented her with the mug. She took it without a word and strode onwards towards the conference room.

The rest of the team followed, ordering Crispin to get them various things, only Jamie offering a quick “thanks” as ney grabbed neir file and bag.

Maybe they should do more of their own chores, he thought sourly. Following like a dog at the heels of Westerfield’s VP wasn’t the job he would have chosen if given the chance. But it got him closer to the action than working anywhere else in the company. He’d bear it as long as it meant he could see history as it happened, he reminded himself as he headed into the conference room.

Though they arrived early, Westerfield didn’t waste any time.

“Stop lazing around and hurry up! We’ve got business today. Akiyama, you’re in charge,” he added before giving his attention over to Arbiter Stratford’s questioning.

“Jamie, you and Carrie get the reports up on screen,” Akiyama ordered.

“On it.” Jamie swung neir case onto the desk and began unpacking the projector.

“I’ll do it.” Carrie pulled it out of neir hands. “You screwed it up last time."

“That was only because you switched the settings around!"

“That’s enough, you two,” Westerfield said, stopping any debate cold. “I want to see work here! Langley, get your statements out and ready."

“I have them memorized, sir."

“I didn’t ask you if you had them memorized, I asked you to get them out."

“Yes, sir,” Jeanne returned, only a flicker of annoyance showing through her profession manner.

~//~

Rushan flicked through Savannah’s files once again as he headed to the meeting. It was a nervous gesture—he knew what he was going to say, but with the stakes so high, he couldn’t help but think of how disappointed the others would be if he messed it up.

Arbiter Kazemi greeted them at the door, a tablet under his arm.

“Good morning, Miss Conteh.” He looked over the group. “Is this the entire Beaconstar delegation? Protocol states—”  

Ari cut him off. “I know what the rule says. We’re all here, just as required."

He checked something off on his tablet. “And your lawyer?"

Michael stepped forward “That’s me."

Kazemi nodded and waved them into the room. “Good. Your podium and seating is over there. Any computer equipment must be prepared before the session begins."

“Thank you,” Ari said tersely. She turned back to her team. “Let’s make this fast, folks."

Angela, Ilian, and Michael hurried to the front of the room, arms full of equipment and notes.Tal glanced across the room. “Hm. Westerfield’s already setting up."

“Well, we can’t fault them for being prompt,” Ilian said, then turned to Michael, who was pulling something out of a case. “Mike, let me take that. I’ll set up the projector. You focus on the argument."

“Thanks.” Michael handed it to nem, and ney took over setting it up. “The presentation is the newest file."

Angela was still glaring at the Westerfield delegation.

“It doesn’t matter if they’re early and showing off,” she said, rather loudly, Rushan thought. As if she wanted them to hear her. “We’re going to win."

She knew her sister well, it seemed. Jeanne turned sharply and approached their table.

“You seem awfully sure of that, Angela.” Rushan couldn’t determine exactly what emotion her blank face hid, but it wasn’t anything good.

Angela stared her down. “You shut up, Jeanne. We’re not leaving here without that claim."

“The claim. The right to leave a bunch of helpless civilians to die in the middle of nowhere?"

“How is it any different when it’s miners and scientists? Maybe bad things can happen, but Papa didn’t drag us into space for us to hide behind stupid rules!"

“Don’t you talk about him like that! You have no idea what he would have wanted-"

They would have continued in their vein for some time if Arbiter Stratford’s announcement hadn’t finally broken into the argument. “If everybody would quiet down, I’d like to begin."

Rushan hurried to his seat, followed by Tal and Ilian. Michael and Ari stood by the podium, ready to speak.

“You’re not going to win,” Angela hissed. “When this is all over…"

“Westerfield will have Sunspar.” And with that, Jeanne walked away, and Angela finally returned to the group.

“Good morning,” Stratford announced. “This begins the first debate session over ownership of Claim 2355-S4, named Sunspar."

“Ms. Stratford and I, as representatives of the Planetary Agency, will hear statements from the two parties and conduct questioning,” Kazemi continued.

“If the dispute cannot be satisfactorily resolved, Claim 2355-S4 will be returned to the Planetary Agency and access will be locked to prevent future conflict."

And with that, Ari Conteh and Jules Westerfield stepped forward to speak.

~//~

This first meeting, Michael had explained back on  _ Moonlark _ , was not going to be especially interesting. It was the groundwork, the time for the two sides to tell their stories, spell out their reasoning. The real action- if it could be called that- happened in the second and third sessions. None of it had sounded particularly interesting to Rushan, but he didn’t want to say anything to dampen Michael’s enthusiasm for their argument.

Michael had been through these hearings before, though for things that would be considered minor next to the Sunspar claim.

Rushan’s job here was to back up Angela’s claim that the Lightmark disaster had been due to incompetence and avoidable mistakes. Interestingly, this was the same thing Carrie Salazar would be arguing. The similarities ended there. Westerfield’s success lay in convincing the Agency arbiters that Sunspar’s geography was unsuitable for anything except their own technology.

Once the opening statements were out of the way, the various team members would give their parts. Rushan almost couldn’t listen for worry over his.

Tal told of the discovery of the planet by Beaconstar scanners, the data gathered by Beaconstar scouts. Of Lissa’s long-held wish to let people live on another world, and the work she did to prove it would be safe. Ilian gave a rather dramatic speech on the difficulty of finding habitable planets and traveling the great distances involved in reaching them. And then it was Rushan’s turn: a report on the tectonic stability of Sunspar. He took a deep breath, triple-checked his notes, and stepped forward.

It was as terrifying and uncomfortable as he had expected, each pause stretching into minutes, each blink of an arbiter’s eyes meaning disapproval, failure. But he endured it, point by point, and then it was done and he could retreat back to his seat. 

“Very well done,” Ilian whispered to him as he sat, offering a reassuring smile that soothed some of the anxiety. Rushan barely listened to Angela’s speech, instead focusing on steadying his nerves and scanning over his notes to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. Had he mentioned the pockets of gas, the odd mineral deposits in the northern mountains? Yes. Not in the order he had planned, but he had covered every topic. Good.

The rest of the hearing passed in a blur of pointed questions and lengthy responses. There was nothing that wasn’t in the files. Perhaps, Rushan thought, he could handle this after all.

**~//~**

They were back in the Beaconstar common room, waiting for Ari and Tal to get back from some meeting or another, when Angela looked up from her work and said to Rushan, “I bet you want to know why we don’t get along."

Across the room, Michael and Ilian slowed in their chess game, looking at her.

“What?” Rushan put down his tablet. He did, but… “You don’t have to, I don’t want to be rude…"

“Nah, everybody else knows the story, you should too."

Only slightly reassured by this, Rushan settled in to listen.

“Jeanne and I, we grew up on a mining colony,” Angela began. “For a few years, at least."

“I didn’t think they allowed civilians,” Rushan said. On some of the orbital industrial stations, yes, but he’d never heard of children allowed on a planetside base.

“They don’t. But our papa was pretty high up in the company. He had money, managed to convince the bosses to let him have his family with him on the base. Jeanne says it was boring. I just remember lots of exciting machines."

She smiled at the memory, and Rushan tried to imagine a budding engineer surrounded by the massive mining tech those colonies used. No wonder she found it exciting.

“You didn’t stay?"

Angela sighed. “When I was five, Papa took us flying around the base. Something went wrong with the jet. Jeanne got out just banged up, and I escaped with everything but my leg.”  A crash? Rushan shivered at the thought. “They thought they’d saved Papa until he died of an infection. Didn’t have the right stuff on the base to treat it. They barely saved me."

“That’s horrible.” The stringent safety regulations on the Lehmann base would never have allowed for something like that. Maybe this had been the reason for some of those rules.  

“Don’t I know it, kid.” She shook her head, and continued. “Mama took us back to Earth after that. But the reason I’m telling you all this is because of Jeanne. She thinks that because Papa died from flying a civilian ship with civilian passengers, that normal people shouldn’t be out on colonies. I say, what happened to us was a freak accident, and the tech’s gotten a lot better since then."

“Beaconstar’s written up reams of safety regulations for prospective colonies,” Michael added. “That was one of Lissa’s passions. Making it all safe for the people who would live there. She studied the disasters of the past and designed ways to stop them happening again."

Ironic, then, that she died in such a disaster. Rushan shook his head, scolding himself for the thought. Sunspar would be safe. If they were ever allowed to build there.

~//~

Though most of the Westerfield team had long since gone to bed, Marissa Akiyama was still at work, the glow of her tablet illuminating her face in the dim common room. Even while working, she was alert to the slightest sound, and though her eyes never left her tablet, she was perfectly aware when Carrie approached.

“Don’t think I don’t know what’s on this planet,” Westerfield’s geologist began, without ceremony. “Why everybody’s making such a big deal of it."

Whatever reaction Carrie had expected, she was disappointed. Marissa barely reacted.

“I wondered when you would play your cards,” she said, still not giving Carrie the courtesy of attention.

“I saw the files,” Carrie said, irritation bleeding through her attempts to match Marissa’s cool calm. “I want the Spark. And you do too."

That got her attention. Marissa finally looked up.

“What are you proposing?"

Carrie’s eyes glinted. “We work together."


	3. Secrets

The morning of the second debate began much like the first: a deceptively normal breakfast over a meeting to discuss their arguments. The first session had been about the planet. Today was about the technology. 

Rushan dutifully followed Ari and the rest of the team into the conference room. His role in this session would be far less significant than in the first, for which he was pathetically grateful. It would take only a short statement to prove that the pockets of gas that doomed the Lightmark miners posed no threat to the Beaconstar domes. Less chance to screw things up or forget to say something important. Still, he had to stand and speak and hope he didn’t trip over his words or sound unconvincing. 

In addition to his part of the argument, Tal had entrusted him instead with taking notes and checking Westerfield’s claims about their newly-developed tech against what he knew to be plausible. 

This time, there wasn’t nearly as much arguing or wrestling with projectors and connections. That should have been heartening, but Rushan instead got the sense that Westerfield were prepared with something they were so confident in, they weren’t even worried about the debate. Well, he thought, to hear Angela talk, so did they.

They sat, and Kazemi rose to his feet. “This begins the second debate session over ownership of Claim 2355-S4, named Sunspar."

Marissa Akiyama stood as the screen behind her filled with an model of a mining rig. The architecture was a little different from what Rushan was familiar with. Instead of the typical struts and carbon-fiber cables, the aboveground portion of the bore was covered in a conical tent of… was that processing membrane? The explanation confirmed Rushan’s guess. 

“This shield will take in all ejected material and separate and filter it. Everything possible will be recycled as fuel, valuable substances will be directed to processing, hazardous to safe storage, and the rest used to reinforce the bore.”

_ Impressive _ , Rushan thought, guiltily. Processing membrane wasn’t typically used so extensively, but if the funds and materials were available… this was inarguably an effective way to use it. 

A few gestures, and the model rotated, a cutaway appearing to reveal the rings of sensors nestled inside the bore. Carrie, with all the confidence Rushan was used to from her, explained how the sensors could be calibrated to detect the hazards specific to the site, and when triggered, stop the drilling and inject a filler material to neutralize reactions.

Rushan risked a glance at the arbiters, but could read nothing in their expressions. Of course they were too well trained to nod in understanding or stare in interest, as he belatedly realized he was doing.

“Neat tech,” Angela whispered in his ear, nearly making him miss Kazemi’s question about funding for the technology. “But I’m sure we can do better.”

The rest of Westerfield’s presentation went just as smoothly. Jamie Kennedia emphasized the safety measures and efficiency of the processing plants, and Jules Westerfield again spoke of what gains could be made if only his people were allowed to begin work on Sunspar. 

And then all too soon it was time for Beaconstar to present.

Angela took the stage with enthusiasm and charm, spinning a model of a Beaconstar dome as easily as any of the other designs Rushan had seen her work on, showing this and that safety mechanism, emphasizing the two feet of graphene-lined transparent aluminum and redundant energy shield beyond that, the atmosphere filters, the sensor net. 

“This was built to withstand the vacuum of space and direct solar radiation - far harsher conditions than you'd ever find planetside. So far none of our installations have ever had to resort to backup systems, but they’re there if needed. Once the three-year surface trial is completed, the dome can be slowly deconstructed and additional open-air construction will begin.”

Again, the arbiters watched impassively, occasionally asking questions that managed to reveal nothing of their thoughts or leanings. There was no reaction to Ilian’s presentation on how Sunspar’s system offered unusual protection against solar damage or object strikes, no reaction to Tal’s meticulous detailing of how the settlements were to be managed.

Someone nudged Rushan, breaking his distraction. He nearly froze but somehow managed to stand and make his case. This was his life, his area of study, and once he got going it was easier, but never less than nerve-wracking. He was about to sit when Stratford raised her hand to ask a question. A moment of panic - but it was something simple, about surveying accuracy and detection distance of hazards, and he answered easily. Ari clapped him on the shoulder approvingly as she rose to give her closing statement.

It wasn’t the end of the session. As per Agency standards, there was time set aside in the second session for the claimants to challenge each other. 

Any sparring was subtle, emotions kept in check beneath technical language and professional manners. Nobody gave an inch - any question raised was deftly answered. Rushan struggled to find a weak point in Westerfield’s drill construction. He remembered the honeycombed rock from Savannah’s notes. Would the bores remain stable, he asked, if they breached a deposit of that?

Carrie and Akiyama exchanged a brief glance. 

“We have worked in similar conditions before, on Maris III and Terya,” Akiyama said, “and have had no issues. The sensors will detect the lowered density and if needed the surrounding area can be reinforced.”

Rushan nodded and let Tal take over, answering Mr. Westerfield’s question about medical supplies and evacuation plans.

“We will adapt from our established Agency-approved plans that are already in use on twenty stations. All our installations, including Sunspar, are fully supplied with emergency equipment to address all possible issues.” 

Angela shot Jeanne a look. Rushan winced, imagining what they both must be feeling at the unintentional reminder. 

Jeanne whispered something to Akiyama, who nodded. She stepped forward.

“As our final argument of the day, we would like to bring to the Agency’s attention one… undisclosed fact about the Lightmark disaster.” 

“Go on,” Kazemi said.

Jeanne pressed a few buttons, and two maps appeared on the screen, each showing a slightly different set of colored blotches beneath the planet’s surface. Subsurface survey maps.

“The image on your left is the most recent surface survey map of the northern continent, where the Lightmark operation was based. The areas outlined in red are where gas deposits were detected. The image to your right is the file Beaconstar Habitations gave to the Lightmark crew.” She waved her hand, and little animations of drills descended through the ground. On the right, one intersected the edge of a gas pocket and stopped, radiating red lines. “If this map had been accurate, what happened at the base would have been prevented. We posit that the blatant incompetence that went into the construction of this map proves Beaconstar incapable of handling the claim.”

Their maps had been wrong? There had been no trace of that in Savannah’s files, or in the Lightmark investigation, or in anything up until now. Rushan looked around at the others. Michael only looked confused, but Ari and Ilian were tense.

“What is your response to this?” Jeanne asked, confident and sure.

Rushan didn’t know what to say. Was he supposed to answer this, or was someone else? This was his area - but he knew  _ nothing _ of this! 

Mercifully, Arbiter Stratford spoke before he could find words. “Such a question falls outside the scope of today’s questioning. We will reopen the issue in the third session, in three days’ time.” 

~//~

Safely back in the Beaconstar quarters, Rushan could think. He looked back at the initial survey maps from Lissa’s ship, the later, more detailed scans from before they gave the contract to Lightmark. No errors. 

Rushan flipped though his notes, heart beating fast. This was good news. Why were the others so serious? Once they proved Westerfield was lying, Westerfield would have no credence with the Arbiters or the Agency, and the claim would go to Beaconstar. “I’ve got the maps from all our surveys,” he said. “Next session, all we need to do is show these, and...” 

“Rushan, Westerfield isn’t lying about the maps.” Ari said.

“What? But there’s no way… Your maps were wrong?” How could they have made a mistake like that? 

Ilian sighed. “Ari, we have to tell them.” At Ari’s nod, ney continued. “Have you heard of the Spark?”

In nearly every comic and adventure book around, yes. “Quanah Diarmaid, sometime in the 2260s, she had a theory about some mineral that could fuel a starship indefinitely. I thought that was impossible. I mean, I’ve seen it in books, but it’s not real.”

“Well… “ Ilian looked excited and hesitant all at once. “We might have found it. Those stone-eating microorganisms in your files… they’re a little more that that.”

“They can do  _ what? _ ” Michael interrupted. “When did you learn this? We have to tell the Agency. This changes everything.” 

“That’s… that’s incredible,” Rushan breathed. The Spark would be the discovery of the century. All the possibilities it could open up, if only it could be refined into some sort of usable fuel... “When did you find it? The Planetary Agency doesn’t know? How-” Rushan paused. Something about this wasn’t making sense. “Does Westerfield know?”

Angela answered before Ilian could. “Of course they know. They’re not saying so, but they know.” 

Ilian was staring at her. “You weren’t supposed to know either.”

She shrugged. “I found out. And there’s no doubt Westerfield did too. Nobody puts up so much of a fight for a hunk of rock without a reason like that”

Rushan didn’t miss how Tal winced at  _ hunk of rock _ . A horrible conclusion was forming in his mind.

“But… the maps...”

Michael stood up, eyes wide with concern. “You said the maps were a mistake. Do you mean… you were hiding it?”

Ari stepped in. “If Lightmark had drilled based on the original maps, they would have discovered the Spark. The false maps were supposed to lead them to nothing. I never planned for anything like what happened.”

Michael stared, aghast. “We can’t… there’s no way we can defend that. You never told me.” He turned to Ilian. “Why didn’t anyone tell me about this?”

“Mike… I’m sorry,” Ilian said. “We couldn’t. We needed a case…”

“Well, we don’t have one now.” That sharp, hopeless tone hurt, even though Rushan was not its focus.

“You faked the maps.” Rushan was yelling now, knew it was only causing more trouble, but couldn’t stop himself. “People died for this! For this pointless fight!” 

Ari winced. “I know. I’m not proud of it. But with the Spark, we can travel so much further. It’s not just about Sunspar anymore.”

“People  _ died. _ ” How could they just accept that?

“You don’t understand,” Angela insisted. “We could go anywhere! We might even meet aliens!”

“And then will we lie to them too?”

“Rushan-” Tal began, and didn’t get any further. 

“We got here by lying, and you expect the Planetary Agency to favor us? We’re in the wrong here. How are we going to respond?”

He froze at the look on Angela’s face. 

“Look, kid, I know you’re not stupid. What do you think would happen if Westerfield had control of Sunspar? Their shareholders would get all the say. It might not seem like it from where you stand, but the anti-spacer lobbies are powerful. Sure, Westerfield would still develop the Spark, but civilians would never get to use it. And you can say goodbye to all those fantasies of walking on other worlds.”

Michael dropped his folder on the table. “We can’t defend this. It was hard enough when the maps were a mistake, but for them to be  _ intentionally misleading... _ ”

“They were supposed to be safe,” Ari insisted. “You think I wanted that to happen? We have to prove our claim. Otherwise everything will have been for nothing.”

“If we tell the truth…” Michael began.

“We can’t let the Planetary Agency know about the Spark,” Angela said. “They’ll take the planet for sure, and then we’ll never see the Spark again.”

“Rushan,” Tal said. “We’ll deal with the planning. You didn’t know and you don’t have to be involved.” It was as clear a dismissal as any, and Rushan headed uneasily back to his room, leaving the others to their discussion. 

He couldn’t argue, not when they all needed him to stay in line, not when the Sunspar claim depended on it. This was wrong… but what could he say? Unlimited interstellar travel, the last thing keeping humanity from exploring the universe, surely that was worth some deception?

~//~

The next two days felt like the longest in Rushan’s life. The others barely spoke, at least not around him, though he knew Ari’s meetings went on long past when he went to sleep. Did they hate him for protesting? Or was he taking this too seriously and ignoring the reality of the situation? Nothing they could do would undo the Lightmark disaster. Ari hadn’t meant for the miners to die. If Westerfield won, and the Spark was never used for travel, would the disaster have been in vain? Or conversely, if they won, would it have been worth it? Rushan shook his head. Such questions weren’t helping. He was here to say what he was told to say and hope it was enough to convince the Agency. 

The Spark! So many opportunities opened up, so much technology suddenly possible! If, of course, whatever lay under the planet’s surface could be refined and used. Rushan flipped through the diagrams Ilian had sent him. This looked so promising, so possible. 

But Ari had given Lightmark false maps. There was no way the Planetary Agency would overlook that.  _ If I was one of the Arbiters, _ Rushan thought bitterly, _ I’d say neither of us gets the planet. Not if this conspiracy is what results.  _

Inevitably, he found himself turning from the false map to the real one and back again, over and over, hopelessly looking for an answer. If only Lightmark had drilled somewhere else, if only they had used a different bore… 

He was about to put the notes aside when something in the Lightmark files caught his eye. He pulled up the drilling plans. Five locations were marked for testing. The first and second had gone as planned. The explosion had happened during the third test. The third and fifth markers were in locations that later scans showed would hit the dangerous gas pockets. But the location of the fifth made no sense. It was redundant. Not useless, but not efficient either. Why would they plan to drill there? The Lehmann team never would have made a plan like this. 

Had somebody else also manipulated the map? Rushan searched through Savannah’s files on Lightmark’s plans, and found no mention of the fifth point.

Something wasn’t right. And the others needed to know.

~//~

“They hacked the map,” Angela said, pushing the tablet back at Rushan. “It’s obvious.”

“That’s a bold accusation. How can you be so sure?” Ilian asked, reaching for neir files.

“It makes total sense. If the base hadn’t exploded, we wouldn’t be here, and Westerfield would have no chance at getting the Spark. It was in their best interests.”

Rushan shivered at the thought of someone’s best interests lying in sabotage. But it seemed Angela was right.

“Does this mean… if there hadn’t been any interference, it wouldn’t have happened?” Tal asked. The glimmer of hope in neir eyes was unbearable. Michael glanced up from his note-taking but didn’t say anything. His questions would come later.

Rushan sighed. “No. If they had kept going on their original plans, the third bore would still have ignited.” He risked a glance at Ari and saw her wince.

“It doesn’t change what happened,” she said. “Anyway, they were  _ trying _ to cause harm. We weren’t. If the Agency thinks their hands are dirtier than ours, we might still have a chance.”

_ Or no chance at all _ , Rushan mused.

~//~

“And here we see the two delegations heading into the last debate!"

“I would give a great deal,” Tal hissed under neir breath, “for that man to  _ shut up. _ "

Rushan cringed. He didn’t much like the reporter either, but Tal’s anger could only make things worse.

A few steps ahead of him, Crispin stumbled.

“Delany! Keep up!” Westerfield barked, glaring at him.

“Mr. Westerfield, sir,” the boy protested, alarm in his eyes. “I think there’s something wrong-"

Westerfield shook his head. “Now is not the time, boy!"

Crispin waved on his feet. Rushan frowned; what was going on? “I don’t-” He stumbled again, pressed a hand to his head, and then all at once crumpled to the floor.

“Damn!” Westerfield growled. “Someone call a medic!" 

People pressed in. Rushan did the only thing he could and ducked out of their way. He couldn’t make out anything in the chaos until he heard Westerfield again, his voice clearly audible above the crowd’s sudden commotion.

“Keep moving! Stop gawking, people! We still have work to do!"

Someone on his team was  _ sick _ , was  _ hurt _ , and he was ordering them to keep going?

The next thing Rushan could clearly make out was the reporter, stating the obvious as usual and being of no help at all. “The Westerfield team’s secretary has unexpectedly collapsed…"

For once Rushan sympathized with Tal’s displeasure. And so too, apparently, did Westerfield. 

“Shut up!” he hollered, looking moments away from actually hitting the reporter. He turned to his team again. “Keep moving! There’s medics on the station, he’ll be fine."

Caught in the middle of the crowd, Jamie hesitated. Ney looked to Akiyama. “Shouldn’t we-"

Akiyama stepped over Crispin without a hint of emotion. “There’s no time,” she said, her voice instantly bringing her team to order. “Let the station medics take care of him.” Obviously uncomfortable but unwilling to disobey, Jamie followed her down the hallway.

The reporter was still gabbling some aimless speculation about overwork, illness, but Rushan had stopped listening. In front of him, Ari took one look at the crowd surrounding Crispin and shook her head. “They’ll never get through in this mess,” she said. She scanned the people closest, singled out one. “You, reporter’s brat, go get help. I’ll carry him,” Ari ordered, pushing through the crowd while the boy stared, frozen in surprise.

The reporter grabbed him by the shoulder. “You’re not going anywhere without my orders."

The boy hesitated, looked from his boss to Ari, and then seemed to come to a decision. He swallowed hard, apprehension showing in his eyes, then pulled out of the reporter’s grasp and turned to face him. “I’m sorry,” he said. And with a quick “yes, ma’am” directed at Ari, he set off down the corridor.

“Don’t expect to have a job when you get back!” the reporter roared after him. Ari fixed the man with a look of disgust from where she knelt beside Crispin. “Then  _ I  _ will hire him, “ she ground out, “and give him something better to do than follow a jackass like you around all day! Now  _ get out of the way. _ "

The reporter, cowed, moved aside. Ari gathered Crispin into her arms and stood.

“All of you,” she told her team, “go on ahead and get set up. I’ll come when I can."

Tal nodded even as Angela protested. “It’s not allowed! They won’t let us argue if you’re not there!” she yelled. But Ari was already walking steadily away down the hall, the crowd moving to let her pass.

“It doesn’t matter,” Michael told her. “They won’t let Westerfield argue either, not with an incomplete team."

That earned a dismissive sound from Angela. “He’s an assistant. He doesn’t count."

“Angela!” Tal scolded, horrified. Angela only continued forward to the door, following Westerfield and Akiyama. They didn’t get far. Arbiter Rebecca Stratford stood barring entrance to the conference room. “Everybody, return to your rooms,” she ordered. “There will be no session today."

~//~

They didn’t know anything. Not if Crispin was safe, not what had happened, not if the hearings would go on. And Rushan hated it, more than he did the arguing and the politics. He was a scientist, he worked with data, and there was little he found more maddening than having nothing to work with.

Ari and Mr. Westerfield had been summoned to an emergency meeting with the Agency arbiters, leaving their teams with nothing to do but wait. And Rushan felt worse than useless.

He should have helped. He should have done  _ something _ besides just stand there, which was about the only thing he’d been doing since he arrived on Sunspar Station.

“There was nothing you could have done,” Ilian reassured him when he expressed this. “Ari handled it the best she could. Right now, we can only hope the boy is well."

“This could be the end of it,” Tal said suddenly. “If the Agency decides Sunspar is too much trouble…"

_ But somebody's hurt _ , Rushan thought.  _ Shouldn't that matter more? _

“We don’t know that yet,” Michael said, and though he put as much confidence into it as he could, the doubt was still audible.

Nobody had much heart to speak after that. They sat around the table, silent, occasionally making aborted attempts at work. Even Angela, who usually spent every spare moment revising blueprints and running equations, was only sitting, waiting for a response.

Michael had the Agency hearing regulations open in front of him, but the screen had long since gone dark. Ilian laid neir hand over his, tried to offer a wordless reassurance and got an uncertain smile in return, one that vanished as quickly as it appeared. Tal gazed out to the planet below them. Would ney ever stand there, live there, Rushan wondered.

Finally, the door opened and Ari stepped into the room. Though there was no defeat in her eyes, her expression did not herald good news.

Tal spoke first. “What did they say?"

Somehow, those words were enough to break the heavy silence, if not the tension.

“How is he?” Rushan asked. “Do we know what happened?"

“The medics are saying Crispin was drugged.” Ari reported, grave, to sounds of shock from around the table. “He’ll be fine. Now they have to figure out how it happened. Someone probably stole something from station storage, or brought it on board."

Ilian stood. “And they suspect us?"

“It’s the obvious first assumption,” Michael put in, shaking his head sadly. “The burden of proof is on us now."

Angela had a different answer. “This could be sabotage. Maybe he did it himself so they could blame us."

“That’s ridiculous,” Ilian scoffed. Michael, on the other hand, paused to consider it.

“It could be, Ilian,” he said, quiet. “It doesn’t sound likely, but they might just try that. 

Ilian shook neir head. “But why, when they already have the upper hand?”

Angela shrugged. “What else could have happened? Hey, they’re a dirty bunch. Who knows what they’d do to discredit us."

They were quiet for another moment, and then Tal asked what they all were thinking.

“What about the negotiations? Is there still a chance?"

Ari nodded. “If we can come to an agreement with Westerfield on a rescheduled session, they’ll allow it. Otherwise…"

“They take the planet,” Michael finished.

Ari dropped a tablet on the table. “They’re giving out a report. Any of this look familiar?"

Angela barely gave it a glance before handing it on to Ilian. “Do I look like a detective to you?"

Ilian scanned the text and shook neir head. “I’ve never heard of this."

Ney passed the report to Rushan. He was expecting for it to mean nothing, to shake his head and hand it to Tal, but something caught his eye. The drug they suspected- he knew that name. And a moment later he remembered where he’d seen it.

“That… that’s what Angela has,” he said without thinking. And then everybody was staring at him in surprise.

Even during the hearings, it hadn’t felt so intimidating to have the others’ attention focused on him. Angela’s glare was the worst. But he forced himself to say the next words, hanging onto the dwindling hope that there was some mistake…

“I…I accidentally ended up with her bag when we arrived. She takes that one."

And the attention shifted, tensed. Angela bore it unflinching for a few moments, and then grumbled, almost to herself, “Should’ve known the kid would be a snitch."

Tal stared in disbelief. “ _ You _ poisoned Crispin?"

“If it had gone the way I had planned,” Angela muttered, “nobody would have ever had to know."

The table erupted into chaos.

Ari slammed her fist on the table. “What were you thinking!? You could have killed him!"

“How could you do something like that? He’s only a boy!” Tal yelled at the same time. It was, Rushan realized in some surprise, the first time he had heard nem raise neir voice.

“I WASN’T GOING FOR HIM!” Silence. “It was supposed to be Jeanne."

“Your sister? Why?” Rushan questioned. He could still barely believe she could have done it.

“It wasn’t supposed to be a lot.” Angela stared straight ahead, refusing to be cowed. “Not enough that anyone could tell. Not enough to hurt her. Just enough to make her a little off point, so she couldn’t argue the case. And if it hadn’t gotten screwed up,  _ we would have won.” _ She pounded the table. “We’d have Sunspar by now."

Ilian turned away in disgust. “On immoral grounds."

“We would have  _ won,”  _ Angela insisted.

“It was  _ wrong.”  _ Tal’s chill tone invited no argument, but Angela would not be dissuaded.

“Tal, it’s Lissa’s dream. She would have wanted us to win."

Ari drew herself up, furious. “Don’t you dare think you know what my sister would have wanted!” she snapped.

In the strained silence that followed, Tal rose from the table, moved to the window. Ney watched the planet below for several long moments before replying.

“Not at this cost. Not unjustly and horribly and… and…” Neir voice broke, and ney fell silent. 

Rushan found his voice at last. “We have to tell station security.”

Angela nearly leapt out of her seat to yell in his face. “Are you stupid? We can just keep going. Nobody has to know. If you tell them, we’ll never win."

Rushan recoiled, shocked into silence. Ilian, still refusing to look at Angela, responded archly, “Neither will we if they think we are dishonest, as well as criminals."

Tal, too, looked away as ney asked, quietly, "Why did you do it?"

Angela scowled. “Every morning I was woken up by Crispin making coffee for Jeanne. Their kitchen’s right across from my room. She’s the first one up- it runs in the family.” A bitter laugh. “And you think I wouldn’t get ideas, seeing him just leave everything in the open every day?"

Ilian shook neir head again, and when ney spoke neir voice was barely audible. “And you thought poisoning your own sister was a good idea?” 

Tal, strained and tired-sounding: “Did you think we couldn’t win on our own?"

Ari glared at her, and this time there was more hurt than anger in her expression. “We trusted you, Angela. I trusted you to do this right.  _ Lissa _ trusted you."

Angela pounded a fist on the table. “Don’t give me that crap. I didn’t come here to lose. Don’t tell me you’re trying to be  _ honest _ .” She said the word like a curse, and Rushan cringed. “We wouldn’t be here in the first place without that forged report."

Ari turned away. “I’ve heard enough. Tal, call station security. Tell them what we know.” She started for the door.” I’m going to talk to Jules Westerfield."

“You can’t!”Angela cried, leaping up from her seat. “Just keep quiet. Nobody has to know."

Ari paused, a hand on the doorframe. She didn’t turn around. “The last time we lied about this planet, “ she said, voice cold and dark as space, “seven people died and we ended up here. Honestly, I don’t even know if we even deserve it anymore. But I’m not going to give up."

And then she was gone. The room was quiet. Angela glared around at them all, but nobody spoke. Tal returned and sat silently; Rushan turned away from the tears in neir eyes. 

What were they going to do? Not for the first time, Rushan wished he hadn’t been chosen, wished Savannah had found someone else. First the fake maps, and now this? A bitter part of him wondered why the others found  _ this _ so much more inexcusable than the Lightmark maps. At least nobody had died this time. 

Was Sunspar worth it? The Spark? He’d dreamed of finding the Spark all his life, of getting to explore beyond the tiny perimeter that modern ships could travel. He hadn’t thought it would involve all this.

~//~

“Mr. Westerfield. I’m here to talk.”

No response. Ari waited. At last, the door slid open. 

Westerfield looked her over, considering. “You could have kept on going,” he stated plainly. “You would have won when the judges refused us for an incomplete team.”

Ari crossed her arms. “I’m not looking to win on a technicality, Mr. Westerfield.”

“Hmph. You’ve got a heart. Make sure it doesn’t get you in trouble. Come in.” 

Ari entered, deciding to ignore that last remark. “I know what happened to Crispin,” she said, once the door closed behind them. “I think you deserve to hear it before the report comes out. I think he does as well.”

“Very noble of you,” Westerfield muttered. It was hard to tell whether he meant it mockingly or honestly. But she had his attention. “I was with him just a while ago. Seems he’s going to be fine, thank goodness. What happened?"

“My engineer, Angela Marlowe, drugged the coffee in your kitchen. We’ve contacted station security and they’ve confined her for further questioning.” A pause. “We also know about your interference with Lightmark’s plans.”

Westerfield’s eyes narrowed. “Why are you telling me this?”

“I want to reschedule the third session. If we leave it as it is, the Planetary Agency gets the claim, and I think you can agree that that doesn’t benefit either of us.”

Westerfield nodded. “I’m listening.”


	4. Crisis

When Jules Westerfield returned from the meeting with Conteh and the Arbiters, the remainder of his staff were sitting in the common room, awaiting news. All except one.

“Where’s Kennedia?”

“With Crispin in Medical.” Langley said. “What did the Agency say?” Westerfield nodded. Good. The boy needed support after what had happened that day. That damned Marlowe. Even knowing what he did about the maps, he would have thought Conteh would hire people with more integrity than that.

“Miss Conteh and I have come to an agreement. The third session will go forward, though not quite as originally planned.”

Akiyama frowned. “In what way?” she asked. Usually, she would have been the first to hear, after Westerfield himself. But these were strange circumstances.

“The session will be held on the planet’s surface, in Lightmark’s Station B.” There, that surprised them. Even Akiyama, who it seemed was never surprised by anything. “It will serve as a symbol of our trust in the planet’s stability.” He didn’t much care for symbols, but if it would serve to earn them a practical outcome, he would accept it. 

“Don’t know why they’re bothering,” Salazar scoffed. “The false maps, and now poisoning? Beaconstar hasn’t got a chance.”

“Don’t be overconfident,” Westerfield scolded. “If the Agency agreed to this, it means they have not yet decided. We must not get sloppy just because we have the upper hand.” Nods all around.

One last matter to settle. “Akiyama, a word.” She followed him into the tiny room he had taken as his office.

“What is it?” she asked when the door was closed. “I’ve been talking with the rest of the engineering department. I can cite the Baumgarten incident if Marlowe tries-” 

“Enough. First, I want to know what you did with the Lightmark files. You told me you were merely monitoring them. Conteh has told me otherwise.” 

Akiyama’s mouth tightened, but otherwise she did not react. She was very skilled at evading direct questions. It was something Westerfield valued highly when it came to press conferences and quarterly reports. Not so much now. He was going to get a direct answer, no matter how long it took. 

“We have been monitoring Beaconstar’s and Lightmark’s communications for years. You know about that.”

“Don’t play dumb. This isn’t about the monitoring.” The monitoring he had resisted for so long, concerned about ethics and laws, until Akiyama had finally convinced him of the profit in it. “Conteh told me that Lightmark’s drilling plans had been altered.” He had given his vice president a lot of oversight, and honestly wouldn’t be surprised if she had been spying on their opponents for long before he gave permission. These dirty tactics might have finally come back to bite them. 

“That has no relevance to the case at hand.” Akiyama replied, voice as level as if she were answering a mundane question in a board meeting. It was not an answer of any sort.

“That is not what I asked. What did you do with the files?” This was worse than he knew. He feared the truth, but if there were to succeed, he had to know.

“It was a small change. They never used it, so it does not matter.”

“Damn! You know better than that!” He banged his cane on the floor. If this was exposed, they could not only lose Sunspar, they could lose the company. “I never gave you permission to change a single comma! It’s damning enough that we’ve been spying on them all this time, and that’s certainly going to come to light now, no doubt, but to manipulate the drilling plans?”

Akiyama let out an irritated breath. “It doesn’t matter. It was Beaconstar’s fault the drill failed, not ours.”

“It doesn’t matter whose fault it was if it would have happened either way!” She had  _ planned _ to cause a drill failure, to kill the Lightmark workers. It was horrifying beyond belief. “You wanted the Spark? We’re not getting it now.” And when this was all over, she wouldn’t have a job either. If not for the impression it would give, he would fire her right now. He should have known better than to give her the control he had. He had thought the victories were worth looking away from the little things that went on out of sight. It was far too late to correct that now.

Akiyama barely flinched. “Trust me, sir. Let me lead the last session. We  _ will _ win.”

There was nothing else he could do, and he hated it. “Very well. And then we will discuss what else you have done without my permission.”

~//~

The Beaconstar quarters felt strangely empty without Angela’s loud laugh and the glow of her diagrams. Ari’s news was just more more strangeness on top of everything else. Somehow they were still here. Somehow they hadn’t all been locked up and sent home.

Somehow the Agency thought they still had a chance. 

“On the planet…” Tal repeated. “The sims were one thing, but to actually be there!” Ney turned to Ari. “Maybe this will help us. Sunspar is beautiful. Somewhere you want to live, not somewhere you want to dig.”

They’d be digging even if they won, Rushan didn’t say. Not only for the Spark, but for metals for building. Not everything could be wood-polymer and transparent aluminum. 

“Maybe,” Ilian said, running neir fingers around neir coffee mug, neir tablet on the desk long gone dark. “I no longer have any idea what they’re looking for.”

Michael finished writing something and set his pen down. “On one hand, this looks very much like they’re still looking to settle the claim. On the other hand, they might consider this the start of a deeper investigation into us both. It’s obvious now that this isn’t any old land scuffle.” He sighed. “We’ll raise the issue of the communications hack. The false maps, though…” He glanced up at Ari, and Ari turned away.

“Tell them it was my idea, and that I’m willing to step down as president if they-”

“No!” Tal interrupted. “Ari, you have to stay. We need you.”

Ari stared nem down. “At this point it might be me or the planet, and I know which is more important.”

Tal winced but did not protest. The silence might have gone on forever if Michael hadn’t at last spoken.

“We have a chance. The maps never detected the gas deposits in any case, so there’s no way we could have known the drilling would go wrong. Westerfield can’t argue that we were trying to hide anything without exposing what they know. And the Agency isn’t going to take their reign of corporate espionage lightly.”

Rushan nodded. “The maps we gave Lightmark could be consistent with a miscalibrated mid-range spectrograph.” Except nothing was miscalibrated, and saying so would lay the blame on the scanning team, who had done nothing wrong.

Ilian moved from the table to sit next to Michael. “It was a mistake, but one that could have gone unnoticed had circumstances not been what they were.”

Michael made a note, the first of many that day.

~//~

Once again Rushan found himself in Sunspar Station’s shuttlebay surrounded by the clanging of metal and the hum of engines.  _ Moonlark _ waited in her bay; her pilot had not yet arrived. Station staff hurried about, preparing equipment and making safety checks. Rushan recognized a few from when they arrived. Today’s launch must have come as a surprise to them, but nothing in their motions showed it. 

Both teams were silent as they crossed the room. There were no glares exchanged between Ari and Westerfield, or Ilian and Jamie. No demands from Westerfield for his team to hurry up, no chatter between Michael and Ilian or Carrie and Jeanne. Rushan saw Crispin following behind Marissa Akiyama as always, and avoided catching his eye. Part of him wanted to walk over and apologize, for what someone he thought a friend had done to him, and another part shuddered at how awkward that would inevitably be. There was nothing for him to say, not now.

The Arbiters entered, each carrying a small bag branded with the blue-and-gold solar system that was the Agency seal, followed by a station agent leading a glaring Angela Marlowe. As soon as her guard permitted her, she strode across the hall, paying no heed to the others’ looks.

“Right,” she said, her voice sharp as if daring them to challenge her, “Let’s get this done.”  She checked a display panel on  _ Moonlark’s _ exterior, still without looking at them, jabbing the screen a little harder than normal.

Once they were inside, she seemed to calm a little.  _ Moonlark _ was her ship and her space, Rushan reasoned. He took a seat and waited, tense, as she read off the pre-flight checklist in a tight, angry voice. The trip to Sunspar’s surface would take barely a half-hour at atmospheric speeds. Enough time to review their arguments - or argue with each other. The ground rumbled, the shuttlebay airlock slid open, and they were in flight, the rods and spheres of Sunspar Station falling away behind them like a model of a molecule, the cloudy curved horizon of Sunspar filling their field of vision with glimpses of reddish forest and orange plain and blue sea.

“It’s beautiful,” Ilian said. “Surely the Agency won’t let all this go to waste."

“We’ll know soon enough,” Ari said, looking to Tal, who was still watching out the window.

“So many years of work, all to be decided in a week… it doesn’t feel right,” ney said.

“It’s politics,” Ari replied, the words bitter. “It’s how it works. We just have to hope it works in our favor."

One more session. One more chance to convince the Agency that this beautiful, rich planet, this planet that could take them further across the galaxy than ever imagined, belonged to them. It still seemed cynical to Rushan, wrong for reasons he didn’t want to think about. But he knew better than to protest that the two companies should share the planet, or that someone more trustworthy should develop the Spark instead of people who would harm others to get it.

It wasn’t until partway through the flight, far longer than it took to set the automatic controls, that Angela finally emerged. Before anyone could speak, she launched into business.

“So Westerfield’s been reading our mail for who knows how long. And I’ve looked into the Vanda Delta case, where a Westerfield rig was found to be using outdated bores and valves-"

“Angela-“ Tal began.

“Don’t say anything!” Angela snapped. “It doesn’t matter. I’m sorry I got the kid, all right?” she threw up her hands in exasperation. "But now we’ve got to focus on clawing ourselves out of this pile of shit and getting what we came for."

“Enough!” Ari demanded, still not looking at Angela. “I only want to hear business. We have a debate in two hours, if you weren’t aware."

“A debate we wouldn’t have to deal with if you hadn’t decided to play hero!"

Ari turned at last to glare at Angela, betrayal and anger in her eyes. “Whatever could have been,” she ground out, “it did not happen. We will face this debate and defend our position like adults, instead of running away from it like cheats."

For a moment Rushan thought Angela might actually attack Ari, but she growled her frustration and threw herself down on the seat next to him, mechanical leg clicking against the table. “Fine. As long as you actually listen to me. I had a lot of time to read in the brig, and I found a few things that are going to be useful."

~//~

“This begins the third and final debate session over ownership of Claim 2355-S4, named Sunspar."

Somehow, Rushan had expected the base to feel more… haunted, perhaps. This wasn’t where the Lightmark workers had died, of course not, but it was where they had lived and worked not long before. But it felt much like the other drilling bases Rushan had worked on or visited. A little disused, but thanks to the service bots, not at all degraded. Utterly typical, except of course for the view. A rocky plain stretched away out the conference room windows, the edge of a red forest just visible in the sunlight and a glassy mountain beyond that. Rushan could only imagine what Tal felt, standing here at last, even if it was behind thick walls and industrial filters.  

The atmosphere was perfectly breathable, and surface toxin tests had all come back within acceptable levels, but survey stations were sealed as a matter of protocol, maintaining their own environments. The Sunspar colony - were it to be built - would only be allowed open-air construction after three successful years in such a controlled settlement. There were precious few planets where this was possible, and only two research stations had ever gone open-air before.

Somehow, Rushan thought Westerfield wasn’t very interested in that.

“The claimants will first be permitted to ask questions of each other, starting with the Westerfield Corporation. Afterwards, they may present any additional material."

Kazemi nodded to Jeanne, who cleared her throat and said simply, “We reiterate our claim that Beaconstar Habitations provided inaccurate survey data to Lightmark, the use of which led to the failure and explosion at their Station C."

“What is your response?” Stratford asked Beaconstar.

Ilian stood. “We remind the Agency and the Westerfield team that the gas deposits that caused the Lightmark disaster are exceedingly difficult to scan for, and that the data we provided would be considered acceptable under most standards. We have studied the files closely, and in our examination discovered a security breach in our systems: code planted by Westerfield to intercept our communications."

“Yes,” Jules Westerfield answered. He wasn’t denying it? What was going on? He continued: “I only learned of this recently. It was done by members of my staff  _ without  _ my approval, which I certainly never would have granted."

Michael had an answer ready. “Then wouldn’t you say that that constitutes a lapse in competence, to be unaware of the illegal activities of high-level officers?"

The argument proceeded from there. It was a few minutes before Rushan realized they had utterly bypassed the issue of the maps. But of course, the Arbiters were not so easily led astray.

“We ask both parties,” Kazemi began, “if these gas deposits were so easily missed, how can you be certain it is safe for further construction or drilling?"

Rushan explained about improvements to scanning equipment; Akiyama yet again extolled the sensor-filled bores Westerfield planned to use. Before the Arbiters could ask another question, Michael asked to put forward a claim, and was approved.

“Westerfield’s spying extended to Lightmark’s networks as well. While we were examining the plans for their survey, we discovered that Station E was unusually placed, and that if it had been completed, it would have caused a similar explosion as occured at Station C. We posit that Westerfield modified the plans in order to disrupt the status of the claim."

Jeanne looked incredulous. “That is an absurd claim. We have already established that Beaconstar’s maps were incorrect, calling into question any plans made based on them. Furthermore, what interest could Westerfield have in causing the claim to be locked?"

“You were remarkably quick to claim it once it was unlocked,” Angela put in.

“That is hardly evidence. I think it more appropriate to ask, why go to such lengths to reestablish a claim that was legally rescinded?"

“That has no relevance here. We have proof these files were altered. Why did you do it?” Michael countered

It was too many lies, all pointless, none of them anything that would help. Rushan spoke without thinking.

“Because of what we found there.”

Before he could think better of it, before he could notice that everybody was staring at him, silently pleading that he would stop, Rushan stood. “Beaconstar’s early studies discovered an organism that produces a substance that might… that might serve as an energy source in interstellar travel. A power source far more efficient than anything currently used.” He flinched at Ari's stormy glare, focused instead at the Arbiters’ not-quite-concealed surprise. “Westerfield must have learned by looking at our files."

Ari stood, and Rushan fought not to shrink away. “The maps were meant to keep Lightmark from finding the Spark, nothing more.” She shook her head. “I never meant for anything to go wrong."

“Which is why you can’t be trusted with it!” Mr. Westerfield declared.

“You changed the maps to cause harm. And you were spying on us!” Ilian replied.

“I never authorized any of that!"

And then all order was lost, the Arbiters and their rules forgotten. Angela was yelling something about being stuck in the past, Westerfield returning with accusations of careless sentimental experiments, Ari and Carrie arguing about maps and spying and regulations. 

Rushan looked to Michael, who winced as he watched the others argue, and wondered if he’d ruined it all. Crispin and Jamie across the room looked equally uncomfortable, and the two Arbiters were watching with… distaste? Rushan couldn’t tell. Kazemi leaned over and whispered something in Stratford's ear; she nodded and stood.

“Enough! Silence!” Arbiter Stratford shouted over the noise, and got no response. She tried again a few moments later, and the commotion at last stopped, if not the tension.

“Thank you. This information may be important to the Planetary Agency’s decision. We therefore call a recess and will reconvene here in one hour. You are dismissed."

They filed out, silent and seething, and as Ari passed Rushan she hissed, “Do you realize you might have lost this?” and strode on without waiting for an answer. 

He didn’t dare to look at Tal.

~//~

“What the  _ fuck _ was the boy thinking?” Marissa hissed.

“I worked with him,” Carrie grumbled. “He was always a goody-goody. Probably  _ wants _ the damn bureaucracy to take over."

“It doesn’t matter,” Marissa said as they turned a corner, out of earshot of the rest of the Westerfield staff. Carrie pulled out her tablet.

“We need to get out of here before the old man comes looking, if we want to get our sample,” she said, tapping in a passcode and bringing up a map.

Marissa nodded. “A few hundred grams, which we can get with one core tube, in the right incubator…"

“And we’ll be the heroes of the interstellar age,” Carrie finished, grinning at the thought.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Marissa warned. They were at the vehicle bay now, not the shuttle dock for exoatmospheric craft but where planes and vans for surface travel were kept. They hadn’t yet been removed after the evacuation - the systems for moving large machines in and out of gravity were in high demand, and active sites had higher priority. 

Marissa scanned the door, made a few system checks. “There. I put the security system for this wing in unflagged debug. We won’t be logged."

Of course, that wouldn’t stop the others from wondering where they’d gone, but that didn’t matter any longer. Not after they got the Spark. 

Carrie headed towards the machinery lockers while Marissa climbed into a plane and set to work. The controls - all standard configurations, slightly out of date but nothing Marissa wasn’t familiar with - woke at the first touch. No extra security needed here, where everyone had equipment credentials and rigid schedules.

Maybe ten minutes later (Westerfield must be looking for them by now, Marissa thought. She’d had Jules so well-trained not to ask questions, and now all that was lost…) Carrie returned, carrying a large black bag on her back and rolling a metallic canister on a cart behind her. A few clangs and the canister of drill fluid was attached to the cargo hooks, and Carrie scrambled over the wing and into a seat.

Five minutes later, they were flying out into the light and dust of Sunspar.

~//~

Silent, furious, and frightening, Ari led them down the hall and into what Rushan distantly noted must be a break room, an open space with tables scattered about and gaming equipment on a shelf at the back wall. It was a short distance, but it seemed to take hours to cross, with all these angry or astonished eyes on his back. Yet the silence ended all too soon.

“Are you entirely crazy?” Angela demanded. Rushan, near panicking now - what had he done? why had he said that? - struggled for words for a moment and finally said, “They would find out anyway… I didn’t think… I’m sorry.” Everybody must hate him now, now that all their work was for nothing.

“How many years have we worked on this? Fighting bureaucrats, keeping secrets…” Tal said, shaking neir head. 

“And now we’ve lost it all!” Angela scowled.

“We lost it when you tried to poison your sister!”

“Enough,” Ilian said, raising neir hands to calm the others, to no effect. “Don’t scare the boy. We have to keep going-"

“BE QUIET!” Ari hollered over the arguing. She turned to Rushan. “I have no idea what you were thinking, but we can’t change it now.” She nodded to Michael. “What do you think?"

“We have to work with what we have, that’s the first thing. Right now we can’t even be certain the Agency will continue negotiations."

He continued, interrupted constantly by Angela and Ari and Tal asking questions or protesting. Rushan tried to listen over his own racing thoughts, but it meant little to him - he was a scientist, not a lawyer, and he had already far overstepped his reason for being here.

“Well,” Ilian said from behind him, in a far calmer voice, “at least it’ll all be decided soon.” Ne sighed. “It wasn’t certain we were winning in the first place, for all the confidence you heard." 

“But what will happen if they decide neither side wins?” Rushan asked. "Now that they know the Spark’s there… they can’t just leave it and do nothing."

Ari laughed, the sound entirely devoid of humor. “Oh yes they can,” she said. Angela was equally disbelieving. Rushan flinched; he hadn’t thought they were listening.

“What, do you think this is some silly game at school and you can go tattle and get a teacher to make us play fair?” Angela grumbled in disgust. "That’s not how life works."

“It’s how _ law _ is supposed to work!” Michael snapped. It was the first time Rushan had heard him get angry. “This would be a thousand times easier if you hadn’t broken a dozen laws already, not to mention common sense. The Agency isn’t stupid, just bound up in protocol. We might have turned that protocol to our advantage. Now, we just have to wait."

“Wait, and then find ourselves set back ten years while-"

The end of her sentence was drowned out by a massive _ bang  _ that shook the room.

“What the hell-“ Ari began, and then the sirens started. Rushan clapped his hands over his ears as a computerized voice calmly announced:  _ “Evacuation plan Delta is in effect. All staff to proceed to surface exits. Evacuation plan Delta is in effect…" _

Delta. Code for a toxic chemical leak by either breached equipment or a reaction with environmental substances. Evacuation meant the air outside was still safe, so likely not the latter…

There was no time to figure it out; they had to go, now.

Ari led them outside into a chaotic mess of lights and sirens. Meters set along the walls flashed alarms as they hurried past, joined by Westerfield and his team.

Michael glanced behind them, at the conference room and the bent, smoking beam hanging down from the ceiling in front of the door.

“The Arbiters!” He ran towards it and vanished through the door; Ilian yelled after him to no effect. “Keep going!” Ari urged, taking neir hand and pulling nem onwards. “The shuttles!” But no, if the shuttles were accessible it would have been evacuation plan Alpha.

“No! Get out first!” Jeanne yelled, before Rushan could say anything. "Towards the vehicle bay!”  

Heart pounding, Rushan ran, as discolored, smoking shards of metal tumbled to the ground around them. Angela, on her prosthetic leg, tripped once, sending a small bit of scrap skittering across the floor, but managed to keep her footing.

The doors to the vehicle bay were already open, meaning the computers were still working. They all flooded through, raced across the walkways.

Behind Rushan, Crispin stumbled. Rushan reached back and grabbed his hand, pulled him through the door.

At last they were standing, panting and coughing, in the light; Westerfield, limping, was yelling names.

“Delany! Langey! Akiyama! Akiyama?” Westerfield called, ushering everyone away from the base. It was entirely in flames now, the smoke pouring off thick and stinging. 

“Not here!” Jeanne yelled. “And Carrie’s gone too!” 

“Shit! Where are they? Who last saw them?"

Rushan looked around - Ari, Tal, Angela, Ilian...

Michael and the Arbiters weren’t with them.


End file.
